1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that executes processing in response to a request from an external device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a multifunction peripheral (MFP) having a copy function or a print function has included a web server function for performing various processing in communication with an external device on a network. The MFP having the web server function can receive a processing request according to a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) from the external device, execute processing according to the received processing request, and transmit the processing result to the external device. For example, when receiving a request for obtaining a processing status (indicating whether a job is executed) of the MFP from the external device, the MFP sends its own status as a response to the external device. Alternatively, when receiving a request of print processing from the external device, the MFP perform printing in response to the received request, and sends a processing result as a response to the external device.
In general, an application operating on an HTTP server manages an identifier for identifying a communication status with the external device using a Cookie. The identifier managed by the Cookie can be used to determine whether a request is from a specific external device, or determine whether the external device has issued a request once to perform a sequel to processing with respect to the previous request according to the determination result. Further, the identifier can be used to authenticate the external device.
For example, when the external device on the network requests processing to an application operating on the HTTP server, the application operating on the HTTP server generates an identifier for identifying the external device as a session identification (ID). Further, the application transmits the session ID to the external device together with a result of the processing request. When requesting processing again to the application operating on the HTTP server, the external device transmits the processing request together with the session ID received from the MFP. As a consequence, the MFP can recognize the processing request from the same external device, and execute processing based on the session ID.
An MFP is generally known, which is loaded with an application operating on a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) server formed by adding a security function to an HTTP server (an HTTP server that communicates with an HTTP client by encrypting data by a secure socket layer (SSL)).
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-140163, when an external device on a network requests processing to an application operating on an HTTPS server, the application operating on the HTTPS server generates not only the session ID but also an identifier referred to as a secure session ID. The secure session ID is the identifier to be used in communication with encryption. The application operating on the HTTPS server transmits, to the external device, the session ID and the secure session ID together with the processing result in response to the processing request. When requesting again processing to the application operating on the HTTPS server, the external device transmits the processing request together with the session ID and the secure session ID received from the MFP.
However, when loading the application operating on the HTTP server and the application operating on the HTTPS server, the MFP uses identifiers varied according to the application. Therefore, different identifiers need to be managed in response to even a request from the same external device.